Culture
Some cultural historians believe that the adjective "elfin" came to be used to describe the facial features of people with Williams syndrome because, before Williams syndrome's scientific cause was understood, people believed that sufferers of the syndrome, who have very charming and extraordinarily kind personalities in comparison to most people, were gifted with extraordinary, even magical, powers. This is often believed to be the origin of the folklore of elves, fairies and other forms of the 'good people' or 'wee folk' present in English folklore. Even though they are often described in the literature as "elfin-faced", Steven Pinker says in The Language Instinct that to him they often appear "more like Mick Jagger".
In a large review of the symptoms and features of the disorder, physicians Laskari, Smith, and Graham emphasized that family members of individuals with Williams syndrome typically reject use of terminology such as "elfin", as well as descriptions of social symptoms as "Cocktail Party Syndrome". Physicians, family members of individuals with Williams syndrome, and Williams syndrome associations alike have called for the curtailment of such terms.
Read more about this topic: Williams Syndrome
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)
“The white dominant culture seemed to think that once the Indians were off the reservations, they’d eventually become like everybody else. But they aren’t like everybody else. When the Indianness is drummed out of them, they are turned into hopeless drunks on skid row.”
—Elizabeth Morris (b. c. 1933)